Friday, October 8, 2010

TV Weekend: Outlaw, MonsterWolf, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire

Catch comic-book legend Stan Lee on Nikita last night? He played a man on the street being interviewed by local TV news; name across the screen: “Hank Excelsior.” If you read Marvel Comics back in the day, you’d find that hilarious.---

What’s new this weekend:Outlaw (NBC, tonight) In a story ripped from last year’s headlines, Garza (Jimmy Smits) & Co. investigate a series of car accidents caused by bad tire rods. Outlaw certainly isn’t the worst new show of the fall season ($#!t My Dad Says has that sewn up), but if you don’t watch it harder (or at all), it’s going on the cancellation block—hell, NBC has already stopped production. Do it for the lovely Carly Pope (right), who already has about 72 first-season cancellations on her resume.

MonsterWolf (SyFy, Saturday) From SyFy: “An oil company defies a court injunction against drilling on tribal land … Their blasting releases the Kachinawaya, a Native American animal spirit meant to protect Indian lands from invaders.” So why is the movie called MonsterWolf instead of Kachinawaya? And why does every other SyFy Saturday B-flick involve some reckless corporate entity awakening some bizarro monster? And why do I always TiVo them?

Also new Saturday:Saturday Night Live (NBC) Host Jane Lynch! And some band called Bruno Mars.

Dexter (Showtime, Sunday) Dexter hires a nanny so he can get some killin’ done—namely, that creepy road-kill scraper who murders women, stuffs them in barrels and dumps them so far out in the swamp that even pretty boy from The Glades can’t find ‘em. This episode also introduces Julia Stiles as a mysterious woman who inadvertently learns Dex’s secret (no, not about the wig).

Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sunday) Booze, boobs, Buscemi and the Brian Jonestown Massacre—what more could you ask for from an epic Scorsese Prohibition-era drama? The last entry refers to the HBO series’ opening theme, a sweet psychedelic guitar-rock instrumental passage that’s Boardwalk Empire's one and only deviation from authenticity—and the purists are bitching up a storm about it. Here’s an idea: Fast-forward, motherfuckers. (“What’s a motherfucker?”)